Community Highlights

Stars are a bit big but the guiding seemed to be playing ball.

nowhere near my best but the drought has been toooo long
 

 

 

 

OK - this was 3 hrs of integration - 180 x 1min subs to try to keep 52Cyg from blowing out too much; C8+Hyperstar+178 MC Cool; Processed in Pix1.8

107x 180s Lights
60 Darks
60 Flats
60 Bias
ISO1600
5h 24m total integration
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

WO132 Chameleon cam
IR742 filter
 

Captured between 26 September and 9 October over several sessions in Ha and RGB with the ED80. 26 September I had my best guiding results to date so presumably down to some good seeing.
Camera was QHY IMG2Pro at -20 deg. Exposures were Ha 20x 900s and RGB 20 x 120s each filter. Tried a few tools from the Pixinsight box very little used (by me) before, including deconvolution, dark structure enhance and NBRGB combination. First image is the Ha processed master.

 
Then combined with RGB master adding some Ha to the red channel. Not happy with the star haloes, but I suppose it is a result of combining small narrowband stars with the larger RGB stars.
 

 
I am planning to add some OIII and SII data soon.

Here is one especially for Halloween.
IC 59 and IC 63.
Unfortunately the clouds moved in before I could get much data on this.
Managed to grab only 7 subs at 600 seconds in both HA and SII.
Could not find any OIII so ditched the channel after a couple of subs.
Had to frame this to loose the bright star on the top edge from blowing out the entire image.
Used a copy of the SII as a false OIII channel to process this in a semi Hubble pallet fashion.
Turned out reasonably ok for so little data.
 
 

Finally getting somewhere only 6x300sec /flats x25 Bias as darks x25  Dithered ,stacked in DSS ,processed in Startools comments welcome as usual good or bad 
 

Dodged a few clouds last night but got enough time Mr Ghosty to make an image. Taken with the C8+Hyperstar & 178 MC Cool combo

Taken tonight in conditions of very poor seeing.
GT81
Atik 414 EX
27 subs at 600 seconds in HA, OIII and SII  (9 in each )
Captured and stacked in Maxim
Assembled in PS 6.
 

What a fabulous night it was last night (Saturday 6th Oct) Everything worked flawlessly with no issues except for one green channel getting trashed from high cloud, that passed pretty quickly and I was able to continue. This  shot is a simple RGB image, I do have plans to get some more data including Luminance and Ha to enhance the H2 regions. I'm quite pleased with the core detail.
Exposure time 7x 900s in Red, 7x640s in Green and 860s in Blue. Taken with my AG12 and H35 camera
Click to view full res image
Thanks 
Peter Shah
 

Not bad for in the face of a harvest moon. I used a UHC clip filter.
26 x 300sec @ ISO800 with darks flats and bias frames
processed in Startools and finished in CS2.
 

Hi everyone - here's my attempt at the Elephant's Trunk. Can't match Graham's excellent Hubble pallet image but I'm happy with my first Ha image withthe Hyperstar on my C8 SCT. This was 2hrs 15mins of exposure through a bit of haze and high cloud, so not the best seeing conditions.

30 x 1800 with the TS Imaging Star and The QSI.
Give it the usual click through to get the best image.
 

Taken under a bright moon last week, 36 minutes of two minutes exposures at ISO 800. First time I'd had a crack at this... Dark skies coming, hoping for a clear windless night, I need to have a serious go and get a lot more data on this lovely object..
 
 
 

I'll throw some RGB onto this project when the moon is out of the way.

That was a better month for Astro, a few decent darker nights, great let's see some more weather gods. As usual the round up précis'd to cut the length down a bit cos we have a lot this month particularly deep sky and solar.

Nothing really special....but a lovely cluster to image especially with the bright moon about. Exposure times were 10x 600 s in red 10x 420sec in green and 10x 560s in blue. I did have some challenges with gradients wit the bright moon but we cant be fussy with the amount of moonless clear nights we get. 
Thanks for looking

201 frames stacked Lunt 60mm D/S Chameleon cam
Stacked in AS3 sharpened in IMPPG and prodded and poked in PS
 
Click through for full res image
 

 

I had another go at the American Neb last night but concentrated on the Wall. I hope you enjoy
18 x 300sec @ ISO800 with darks, flats and bias frames
Processed in Startools and finished in CS2.
I used a UHC clip filter which really helped with the near full moon.
 

Finally managed to get the SII data I needed to complete this last night.
 
Taken with the GT 81 on the AZ EQ 6 Pro mount.
Atik 414 EX with 0.8 reducer/flattener
Astronimk's 6nm filters -- HA, OIII and SII
 
HA 33 subs at 600 seconds
OIII 51 subs at 600 seconds
SII 21 subs at 600 seconds
 
Total time 17.5 hours of data.
 
Captured and stacked in Maxim
Processed in PS 6
 
Click on the image a couple of times for full res.
 

Full disc shots 1.54m focal length ISO 100, 1/1000 second exposure. Stacked 51 images in Microsoft ICE then finished in GIMP.
 
 

My very first guiding run, so a voyage into the unknown.
 
Turns out there's a "quick method for the impatient" in PHD2, so that ticks my boxes. As a bonus, Adam at RVO assured me it's not too difficult, too. 👍
 
Baader BCF Modded Canon 1100D
WO Zenithstar Z61
SWSA 
QHY5L-ii C Finderguider
 
60x 240s Lights
21 Darks
60 Flats
60 Bias
 

 
Kev
 
 
 
 

That is the first full night's imaging I have managed in a long long time.
Evening started of with wall to wall cloud which persisted late into the night.
After it finally cleared the rest of the night was stunning.
 
Hopefully it will be clear again tonight so I can get some OIII and SII
 
GT 81
Atik 414 EX
 
35 subs at 600 seconds in HA
Captured and stacked in Maxim
Polished up in PS 6
 
Click on the image a couple of times to get to full res.
 

Alec shared his attempt on NGC7000, which was cut short due to clouds, managing just 10 minutes of data. The image is stunning considering just how little data was captured!